Discover our new 2026–2027 concert season

Beethoven Commemorative Year

As we approach the two-hundredth anniversary of Beethoven's death, this season features a varied selection of his music: from stormy drama to pure stillness. On 14 May, to mark the commemoration of the bombing of Rotterdam, we perform Beethoven's Fifth — the symphony with its famous opening bars that remembers, moves, and sustains. And of course the Ninth will also be heard: once vilified, now a radical call for brotherhood.

"For symphony orchestras, there is a time before and a time after Beethoven. Undisputed geniuses such as Haydn and Mozart certainly paved the symphonic path, with due respect for the classical rules. Beethoven broke with those rules — and how. An ever-expanding orchestra (trombones! percussion!) spoke an ever more radical language (dissonances! yet more dissonances!), telling epic stories (a choir!) that left the ears of his audiences ringing. The road to Bruckner, Wagner, Webern, and many others was thrown wide open.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic tips its hat to Beethoven, and anticipates the two-hundredth anniversary of his death in 2027. We do so in the coming season with an extensive portrait of Beethoven, featuring outstanding conductors and soloists in both expected and unexpected combinations with composers who came after him. Beethoven's influence, after all, is felt to this day.

Consider Beethoven's gift for constructing grand structures from the smallest musical building blocks. Bruckner paid close attention and designed his own monuments — take his epic Sixth with its exquisite Adagio. Anton Webern, equally inspired by Beethoven, instead sculpted a miniature symphony in which every note was placed on the finest of scales.

Beethoven's ideals proved equally contagious. He protested against tyranny and positioned himself as an independent artist (though secretly rather pragmatic about it). This inspired Romantics such as Richard Wagner — but also the Allied forces during the Second World War: the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth became a symbol of hope and resistance. That symphony we perform on 14 May, the commemoration of the bombing of Rotterdam.

And of course Beethoven's Ninth cannot be absent. This groundbreaking work was described by some contemporaries as 'monstrous' and 'tasteless'. We know better now. The Ninth is a call for brotherhood, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra underscores this by preceding it with Arvo Pärt's spiritual Fratres. The appeal for compassion remains as urgent as ever."

— Floris Don, Manager of Artistic Affairs

We look forward to welcoming back familiar conductors and soloists to our stage, alongside promising talents and leading musicians making their long-awaited débuts with our orchestra. Our own musicians will also step forward as soloists, including Albane Baron and Juliette Hurel in Mozart’s Concerto for Harp and Flute, and Felipe Freitas in Strauss’s Second Horn Concerto.

The brochure will be arriving through your letterbox this week, or browse our concert calendar.